http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/11/03/3587971/kansas-october-revenue-brownback/
"Kansas brought in $23 million less in tax revenue in October than the state had predicted, continuing a pattern of serious shortfalls that began when Gov. Sam Brownback’s (R) massive tax cuts went into effect in 2012.
The October revenue drop reported Friday afternoon follows a $21 million shortfall for September. Revenues had come in very close to projections for the prior two months, giving the state a solid start to the fiscal year that began in July. After revenues came in more than $300 million below projections in FY2014, the July and August figures were a welcome turnaround. But a third of the way into the budget year, Brownback’s administration now has about $40 million less to work with than it had predicted for FY2015.
The numbers would be disconcerting for any state, but Kansas is especially ill-positioned to absorb this kind of budget hit. The state was ordered to increase its schools funding by hundreds of millions of dollars because its education spending plan was so thrifty that it violated the Kansas Constitution. The plan the cash-strapped state came up with to address that court order involved taking money from one set of underfunded schools and redistributing it to other, even more underfunded schools.
Roughly six years after the financial crisis, most states have turned the economic corner and begun to see tax collections rise for their treasuries. As a result, spending on education finally began rising instead of falling in the typical state in 2014, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Kansas is moving the opposite direction, not only in terms of spending for public services but in economic outcomes for individuals."
